Slipping
by DarthSukiMomo
Summary: After four million meta cycles of being in a coma, Arcee is a little eager to help out her Autobot friends and volunteers for the job nobody wants: Tracking Starscream and any clones that may still reside on Earth. Set after TFA's last episode contains spoilers *First chapter is mostly Arcee and Slipstream, Starscream comes more around chapter 2 onwards.
1. Chapter 1

Arcee touched down on Earth, leaving the safety of her shuttle into the wide organic land. Truthfully, she was a little uneasy, but life was life in all its forms, even organic. A few of the humans were gathered around her shuttle, and she recognised the authorities in the small crowd.

"I am Arcee, I come only to recover any decepticons that are hiding on your planet," She stated, stepping back a little as one of the organics approached her.

"Well try to blend in a little. Every time one of you robots come, you always cause a huge commotion," An organic with blonde hair grumbled. Raising a hand and waving her off, he started to try and disperse the crowd, mumbling," This is why I hate machines."

Dipping her head, she apologised and said," Excuse me, I'll find a vehicular mode from this planet straight away."

Her mission was to locate Starscream and any of his clones that still remained, and cause as little trouble for the humans as possible. Optimus Prime and his group were still back on Cybertron, clearing up what had all happened and explaining what Cybertron Command was still in the dark about. Most of the other cybertronians were leery about organic planets, but somebot had to find the Starscreams, and she volunteered. Arcee had spent so long sitting on a medical table in a secured room, she felt almost guilty for not being able to contribute more to the autobot effort.

Walking through a parking lot, her optics landed on a motorcycle to her liking, and she swiftly scanned it. Transforming, she began her search for the mech by locating Allspark fragments using a device Sari had created (their last account of the mech stated he was kept online by a fragment of the Allspark embedded in his helm). It wasn't picking up much, so the pink motorcycle drove trying to cover as much area as possible. She was told it couldn't scan a very big radius, so she would have to comb the area.

"Excuse me."

Coming to a halt, she saw a dark haired organic coming her way.

"You are cybertronian, yes?" He had noticed her lack of driver, and immediately hoped his assessment was right.

Unfolding into robot mode, she gave the affirmative. "Yes, I'm Arcee. Is there something I can help you with?" Her voice was soft with her natural sweet inclination, the reason she had studied so she could teach sparklings.

Speaking directly to an organic was kind of fascinating in a way; he was so tiny and looked so fragile, and she giggled to herself before letting him continue. She mentally berated herself, it was rude to judge on appearances, but the little humans were small and cute, and it was hard to take them seriously.

"I am Professor Isaac Sumdac, and my daughter is on your planet..."

"Your offspring on my planet?" She asked, slightly surprised. Cybertron was so xenophobic, it was hard to imagine. "Is Sari your offspring?" The young cybertronian that tagged along with Optimus Prime and his team was different, and had no records of existing on Cybertron. She'd been meaning to ask Ratchet about her...

"Yes! Oh, is she alright? Have you spoken to her? How is she doing? Is she homesick?"

"She's alright. I haven't personally spoken to her, I'm afraid, but she's in the hands of Optimus Prime, so she's safe." The look of relief that crossed Professor Sumac's brought a smile to her faceplate. It was like she was teaching sparklings all over again; that warm feeling a knowing that you pacified an curious, anxious bot... well, organic...

"Could you do me a favor and deliver this to her when you return to cybertron?" He asked, holding out a small device that fit in the palm of his hand and had a screen on it.

"Of course, Professor Isaac Sumdac," she said, kneeling and holding out her servo for the tiny package. As she unfolded a compartment in her chest and placed it there for safekeeping, she said," I'm sorry, but I must be off. I have an important mission to complete."

"Oh that is no problem. Good luck on your mission, and thank you so much!" He waved goodbye and she did the same before transforming and rolling out.

Her scanners started crazily alerting her to a fast moving Allspark shard, and she looked to the skies to see a harrier jet. Looked like she found Starscream, or by taking a closer look at the coloring, a clone.

Revving her engines in pursuit, Arcee sped up and tried to determine where he was heading. She was soon disappointed to find the harrier jet crossing over a large body of water. Apparently she was going for swim. As her front wheel entered the water, she realized it was much too deep for her to swim through, and backed up. What should she do? She was losing the clone.

Retracing her tracks, she found the professor just a little distance from where she had left him. "Professor Isaac Sumdac," She called out. He really needed to shorten his name, it was such a mouthful.

He looked back and asked," Arcee?"

"I need to get across that body of water, I don't know where, but I'm following a decepticon."

"Decepticon? I have a boat that you could use to track him!"

"Thank you," The cybertronian said with a sweet smile.

It wasn't long before Arcee was sailing through Lake Erie and tracking the peculiar shard of the Allspark. She had to admit, traveling by water was worse than traveling through space, if only because she hadn't experienced it very often. Before the war she had seldom left Cybertron, being too busy with attending to the teaching of sparklings, and her home world didn't have much in the way of water.

The harrier jet came back into view as he was landing on an island, and Arcee maneuvered the vessel to come to a stop at the beach, albeit, she more docked _on_ the beach and out of the water... Hopefully the scrapping and snapping sound was an indication of her breaking anything.

"Halt, sir. Agent Arcee of Cybertron Command," The pink femme yelled, jumping onto the sand and bringing out two electric blue swords. Watching the harrier jet unfold, she gasped in surprise and exclaimed," You're a femme!" The intelligence feed had said that Starscream and his clones had taken the form of harrier jets. The last time she checked, Starscream was most definitely a mech.

"Last time I checked," The teal and purple cybertronian snarked in response.

"Are... you a clone of Starscream?" Arcee let her servos lower, but still held the swords ready for action if she needed it.

Growling at the name, Slipstream snarled," Don't remind me."

"I'm to take Starscream and all clones I find into custody," Arcee informed the other, not letting empathy into her voice. This had to be done for Autobot security. It didn't matter that she'd be taking in a bellicose but otherwise nonviolent (so far) femme.

"Of course you are. Of course that slagging mech has had to ruin my life even further, posthumously none the less!" She spat kicking at the sand she stood upon and raising one of her nullray guns. "I'm sick of that slagging crankshaft making my life a living Pit!"

Readying her swords and lowering her center of gravity for better control should she have to dodge, Arcee asked," Posthumous? He's offline?"

Gritting her dental plates and lowering her weapon, Slipstream nodded and brought out a bright blue crystal from a compartment of hers. "That's why I'm here. Someone has to revive the mech."

A piece of the Allspark, Arcee noted. "Why do you seem to hate him so much? Starscream, I mean, he created you." And if she hated him, why would she be reviving him?

"Yeah, aren't I _sooo_ lucky," Slipstream scoffed. "The others were lucky. The megalomaniac, sycophantic, even the coward was more lucky than I. I guess when you fail your whole entire life, get beat to the ground by friend and foe alike, and are _so_ pathetic you can't even lead a small group of clones, one deserves to have a large helping of Self Loathing. Well guess what? _I_ represent his self loathing." She started kicking the sand again, and a piece of grey metal began to come into view. "It's not even fair. I hate myself so much that I couldn't stand my true form. Being a clone, there wasn't much room for personalization, so I chose the most extreme, changing genders, but it still wasn't enough to actually change anything!"

Arcee hesitated then sheathed her swords and approached the seeker.

"And no matter what I do, I have to hate myself and _him_ even more so. I can't barely survive with him offline as much as I loath him, because my sole purpose is to wish him offline." With a stronger kick, ringing metal could be heard, and more of the gunmetal grey corpse was revealed. She had found his body in downtown Detroit where he'd fell offline, and relocated him here so she had time to locate a new shard of the Allspark.

"Let me help you," Arcee offered, bending down and grabbing the crook of his arm. Watching another senselessly beat a fallen mech, even a con, was unsettling to the pink femme. She hefted him out of the sand and gazed to the clone, wondering what she would do now.

Angry tears threatened to leak from her optics, but Slipstream quickly wiped them away. Insecurely crossing her servos, she muttered," It's just not fair. I'm miserable, there's nothing I can do about it, and it's _all his fault_." Wings drooping she added," And now you're going to try and arrest me. I'll probably fail to get away since I'm structured after _this_ piece of scrap." 'This' was emphasized with another light kick, though Slipstream had obviously lost her enthusiasm. "And I'll be kept for the rest of my days locked up in some small room."

A frown pulled at Arcee's mouth. "I've spent the last four million meta-cycles locked up in some small room. I was put into a coma during the Great War."

"Well it sucks to be you. At least you don't have to hate everything you do, how you look, and what you represent," Slipstream hissed bitterly.

Taking out her console panel that held important information, Arcee calmly started reading," I am looking for Starscream, a _mech _who is last known to take the form of a harrier jet, and clones of himself." Looking up to the femme standing across from her, she held out a servo to grab the Allspark fragment. It was uncertainly placed in her palm and Arcee finished," Thank you unregistered citizen for identifying and locating Starscream for me. Please keep a lookout for any of his clones you might find."

Slipstream wore an expression on confusion before asking," Why are you doing this for me? I'm a con."

"Silly bot," Arcee teased as she had many a sparkling, in a warm and endearing voice," Everyone knows that the decepticons are taken care of. Only a few, like Starscream, remain from the old regime."

Taking a few hesitant steps back, Slipstream prepared to jump into the air and transform to her alt mode. "Thank you..."

"Oh, and one more thing..."

"Slipstream," the clone supplied.

"One more thing, Slipstream," Arcee said with a nod," The 'lucky' sycophantic clone was able to insult one of us as we were questioning him the other day."

That would have seemed like the most insignificant sentence of all time, except it meant that Slipstream wasn't necessarily bound to self loathing for the rest of her life. A fellow clone had deviated from his programming, even if only for a nano klick.

"Thank you... For everything," Slipstream awkwardly said before leaping into flight.

Starscream was much larger than herself, so Arcee had difficulty lugging him back to her sea vessel. In retrospect, she should have asked Slipstream for help. After taking him back to her shuttle (as discretely as possible (meaning not at all, for which she apologized to the head of authorities)) and returning Professor Isaac Sumdac's boat, she locked Starscream in stasis cuffs and barred him into his cell.

Tentatively, Arcee took the little shard that Slipstream had handed over, and reached for his helm where a shard had been previously. She didn't even need to plunge the little jewel in as she had feared, it seemed drawn to the spot and actually slipped out of her servo before her digits reached their target, sliding deep into his helm. A brilliant blue filled the small space and the once dead seeker's optics flashed a gleaming crimson.

* * *

**I'm not sure where I'm going with this, or if I'm even continuing at all ^^; but I had fun writing it (and have a few ideas for future chapters).**

***I know that in TFA Arcee is a car... but she's too small to be any Earth car I know of (except those smartcars that look like toy cars). She's even smaller than Bumblebee if I remember correctly (I know, I know, Size May Vary ie. Prowl is taller than Bee)... So I decided that her alt form that's a car is from Cybertron. She scanned a motorcycle on Earth... :D**

**Personally, I believe that Slipstream represents Starscream's self loathing, so I made her represent exactly that in this little fic. It would explain why she always belittles him and refused his form. It's also canon that she revives him with a shard of the Allspark, so I messed with that a lil'.**

**Hope you enjoyed this ^.^**


	2. Chapter 2

"The great Lord Megatron will rescue me from your disgusting autobot servos, and I will relish the pain we will cause you for incarcerating me," Were the first, very loud and theatrical, words to leave the newly revived seeker. If Megatron _did_ come to save him and look at the security feed, he was _not_ being caught for treachery. Not until he could secure a place within his old master's personal team at least. "My _glorious_ leader-"

"I'm sorry, Starscream," Arcee interrupted," But Megatron is offline. He was caught in the final battle." She was sincere in these words. If Starscream was so devoted to his master, she felt bad that she had to be the one to break it to him.

"Oh. Well, ignore the previous nonsense then," Starscream said nonchalantly with a shrug. Typically he'd be furious someone interrupted his speech, but she saved him a lot of time groveling to a nonexistent saviour.

Confusion swirled in the femme's mind. How did a follower care so little of leader, especially one of the rank that Cybertron Command had him pegged as. It must be a decepticon thing, she decided, since Ratchet had shared with her his team's first meeting with the mech she now held imprisoned. If Starscream was to be believed, he had personally tried to assassinate his own leader.

"Tell me this, how the Pit am I online. I could've sworn that I lost my Allspark shard," Starscream said, honestly wanting to know. He had felt the pulling on his helm, and the terror as the shard slipped from its place. If it had no longer been lodged in his head, how had he survived? He no longer had a spark to keep him online.

"Slipstream saved you," Arcee told him. He had a right to know. The femme who'd been gone from the world for four millennia didn't know any better than to give the silver tongued decepticon more information than absolutely necessary. "She transported your body so we wouldn't find you long enough to let her locate a new shard of the Allspark."

"Slipstream? I thought she hated me," Starscream commented, growling as his attention turned to the annoying cuffs and he fidgeted in their clasp.

"... She does," Arcee affirmed," But she hates you so much, she couldn't live without you to hate."

"Hmm... I never did figure out what she represented. I mean, the consummate liar and sycophant were pretty easy to label, but she just seemed to hate me." He continued his distracted wriggling of the cuffs.

Unsure if Slipstream would want her to divulge what she had learned, or if it was even her place to say it, Arcee hesitated before revealing," She represented your self loathing."

"M-my wha-?" With an uncomfortable laugh, he dismissed," My clones are supposed to be pieces of my personality, and I assure you, I have three times _less_ self loathing than the average mech. I mean, she probably just lied to you 'cause she hates me."

Arcee's expression gained a little pity, and she didn't press it. She supposed she wouldn't want to find out that one of her main personality traits was self loathing either. That really couldn't do much in the way of boosting a bot's self esteem. Her attention was pulled away by an incoming call, and she left her prisoner to answer it.

Optimus Prime came onto the monitor and Arcee smiled. "Greetings, sir. I caught Starscream, and am on my way to track any other clones."

"No need, Arcee. We've found the Swindle has two in his company, and we were only aware of five. With the three in our custody, and Starscream in your servos, we have all the Starscreams accounted for. Please return to Cybertron."

"Understood."

"And Arcee, be careful. Starscream is crafty and isn't above doing _anything_ to save his afterburner," Optimus warned, having the femme's safety and success with the mission in mind.

"Thanks for the advice, but I'll be fine," She assured him. "Arcee out." He nodded before shutting down the signal, the monitor going black again.

"Well I guess it's just us," She said, looking back to Starscream. A sneer pulled at his mouth and she asked," What's wrong?"

"You know of Slipstream, but you didn't say anything. Why?"

Glancing down at the floor of her shuttle and thinking lightly, she tried to come up with a good answer. "I guess I felt she had already compensated for her role as a decepticon." She'd had empathy for the looming plight Slipstream would have, and Slipstream hadn't truly done all that much to deserve it. She was already burdened with an irrational hatred of herself, she needed to be given a break for once.

"That what you're gonna tell the autobots when I reveal you let her off scott free?"

Arcee shrugged and pragmatically said," It's a _long_ trip to Cybertron. Traveling at low speeds through space takes less energon and the space bridges have been temporarily shut down for conservation purposes." They had a long time before she had to even consider the consequences of her moral choice.

"Wonderful. So I'm to remain bound in this small little prison for meta cycles? How cruel _are_ autobots?"

"Almost a stellar cycle," Arcee confirmed. "Sorry, but I used to teach sparklings. No amount of whining will get you what you want."

"I'm not whining," He insisted, his voice high pitched and very consistent with the description of whining.

She giggled then set to taking off from Earth. Her little shuttle would take quite a bit of time if she wasn't intercepted by a larger vessel capable of faster speeds. She wasn't complaining though, a little break from the brand new world was fine. It was a little much to take in all at once; she'd be busy reading up on the history she had missed and advances in schooling she would need if she hoped to teach again. It was amazing what could evolve in just four million meta-cycles of absence.

After securing a path for Cybertron, she brought up the video she'd been watching on her way to Earth. "_Many millions of years ago, war raged between the forces of the heroic autobots, and the brutal decepticons for control of the planet Cybertron. The autobots battled valiantly in the name of honor; their courageous exploits bringing hope and glory to a beleaguered war torn planet, and inspiring countless generations of_-"

"This video is _filled _with propaganda praising the autobots," Starscream complained.

Pausing her video, she said," Then don't watch it."

"I'm stuck in the same room as you. How am I supposed to not watch it?" He pointed out. The lack of space in this vessel was going to make coexisting even more difficult than previously thought.

Turning around in her chair, she frowned and apologized," I'm sorry, but I have a lot of history to catch up on. I need to study."

"What can you possibly learn from a video about the Great War that pertains to recent history?" He asked in annoyance. The last thing he wanted to listen to for the next stellar cycle were videos about a war he had lost.

"I've been in stasis since the middle of the Great War. There's a lot to be learned."

"Oh, yes! You're the femme we took for the security codes to Omega Supreme! No _wonder_ you looked so familiar!"

Arcee uncomfortably nodded. "Yes, I am..."

"Too bad a beauty like you had to be in a coma so long."

Giving him an unimpressed glare, she informed him," Flattery won't get you anywhere."

"I'm just being honest," He shrugged. "I guess the _real_ shame is that you were put into a coma by the autobot's themselves. Shockwave told me it was a medically induced coma."

Trying to ignore the mech's words, she troubledly turned back to the screen and started up her history video again. Right now she was wishing the shuttle had been planned a little better. Even a second room would be nice. _Anything_ to escape the evil words of the seeker.

* * *

Starscream felt cramped in his cage, having had sat there for quite a few groons without even the space to shift about into a more comfortable position. He couldn't even stand up, his wings proving too wide to allow him the space to do so without threatening touching the force field that kept him inside. He wasn't willing to find out if he'd get an electric shock out of the deal.

"C'mon, autobot! At least give me somewhere a _little_ roomier so I can stretch my wings..." He'd been begging for leniency for the last joor, hoping he'd wear down on her mind eventually. If she gave in, then he'd get a chance to make her regret it and take over the ship. She had been a teacher, and had been in a coma for four million meta-cycles, there was no way she'd put up too big of a fight.

Arcee was trying to recharge, folded up in her new motorcycle form, and trying to block out the incessant calling of the seeker. She knew it was a trap. The pink cybertronian was anything but dumb; she could smell his scheming from a mile away. Unfortunately, she was stuck within the same shuttle as him. How she'd love to be a mile away. Even half a mile away would be nice.

Despite her aversion to being in the same area as him, she kept herself pointed in his direction so he was under constant surveillance. It was going to be a _long_ stellar cycle, but she refused to let her prisoner escape or gain any control. This was her first mission since Omega Supreme, she couldn't afford to mess up. She had to prove to herself she still had it; she wasn't obsolete in this brand new world.

Starscream finally resigned from his quest to exhaust her patience and his helm lolled to the side as he gave in to the call for recharge. Arcee was filled with relief. She could hold out till the end of time, but just because she could didn't mean she wanted to listen the the mech complain forever.

* * *

_I'm falling, why am I falling offline and out the sky? My shard! My lifeline! It's being pulled from me! I can't scream loud enough to convey the proper level of agony I'm feeling. The last remains of my soul are being ripped forcibly from myself. Please make it stop. Please make it-_

_There's nothing left. I don't have to worry about pain anymore; I feel nothing. And the nothingness is the most intense feeling I've ever felt. The most spark chilling (despite me having no spark) feeling I've ever, or I suppose ever will feel. _

_I'm offline, so feeling should stop right? I'm to be judged, probably be sent to the Pit or whatever happens to a soul departed... but nothing's happening, I'm just suffocated by neverending nothingness. A-and it won't stop. Please, bring back the pain. Anything but this nothingness. Please!_

_Let me out of this Pit. I thought the Pit would be miserable, but I could never imagine anything this horrible. Please, let me out! Bring back the pain, I don't care, just free me from this nothingness!_

Starcscream awoke with such a jolt he tried to jump to his feet, but fell forwards into the energy wall. Pain came, just as he had wished, as high voltages crossed through him. Trying to slink back, he managed to drop to his knees, but something horrific happened. How he landed, his stasis cuffs ended up being directly in the line of the force field, and directly in line for an awful boost in power. They overcharged so much that they not only kept his weapons from working and his power limited, but fully immobilized his chassis.

The shriek of pain and terror went unparalleled as his whole body was caught in a never ending electrical current.

Arcee rose with a start at the wail of sheer agony, and instantaneously discerned the cause. Without taking time to consider her own safety, she leapt into action, unfolding from her alt mode and jumping the short distance so her servos met his and pushed them back into the cell.

She received a shock being unable to stop her momentum before her own chassis met with the force field and fell back on her aft. Soreness greeted her as she shakily stood up, but she'd only withstood the high voltage shock for less than a nano click.

"Starscream, are you okay?" All that met her question was a muted whimper. Peering into his cell, he was cowering from the orange wall of electricity, clearly dazed and transfixed in terror at the translucent wall. His expressive faceplate was frozen in fear and his stabilizing servos tried futilely to push him further back from the force field.

He was in too much shock to respond to her question. It was quite likely he was actually seriously harmed beyond the intended zap to discourage prisoners.

"Starscream! Please, are you okay?"

Still no response, so she readied a sword for protection and pressed the release button to dissipate the force field. Removing the null ray guns (which in hindsight, she should have done before reviving him), she helped him up to his stabilizing servos and walked him to a chair that was to the side of the shuttle (purposefully away from any consoles).

Taking out her medical emergency kit, she grabbed the scanner and began sweeping up and down his chassis to find if there were any problems. She had to calm herself as she found the very disconcerting lack of a spark. From how lively he had been earlier, his silent, shivering self was eerily too devoid of life for her liking. Her scanner showed however, he was physically fine.

Arcee knew she couldn't very well leave him out in the open, but she felt bad that she had to stuff him back in the cell. There was no other option though, so she once again helped him to his stabilizing servos and walked him back to the tiny cell.

As they approached the open cylinder, he resisted, pulling against her and trying to lead them the opposite direction. "Not the nothingness. Not the nothingness again, it brings pain," He mumbled frantically.

"I'm sorry, Starscream, but you have to go back into your cell!"

As he jerked out of her grasp, she pulled both swords out and crossed them like an 'X', expertly following and leading her prisoner so he became trapped between her swords and a wall. Activating the electricity (really only enough to stun an opponent with the near harmless shocks, and mostly for show) through her weapons so they snapped and crackled right beside his neck, she dangerously commanded," Back in your cell."

He quailed and nodded, letting himself be lead, and stepping into the cell. She activated the force field, spark wrenching as he flinched away and uneasily shuttered his optics. If this was an act to lower her guard, he was possibly the best actor of all time. "Starscream, was there a static feedback in the force field? How did this happen?" She wanted to prevent it from happening again. Starscream may be a con, and he may have been grating on her nerves, but he didn't deserve _that_.

"Er, no... I was..." He blinked his optics in her direction before becoming embarrassed and averting his gaze. "I was having a bad memory loop about my offlining and startled awake," He awkwardly confided. He was too rattled to come up with a good lie or twist the tale to make it her fault, but he had to save face. Screaming in front of the enemy? How embarrassing. "B-but I wasn't scared! That scream was just the electricity running through my vocalizer!"

Before Arcee could respond, he quickly yelled," And Slipstream isn't my fragging self loathing!"

Arcee was starting to regret having told him, and slowly nodded in acknowledgement of what he was saying. "Well, please be careful. You may of not been scared, but you scared _me_." Of course she knew he had been terrified, but she wasn't about to go trashing a mech's ego. That's when they got the most ridiculous plans to prove themselves. She rather liked having easy control of the shuttle.

The seeker's optics narrowed. "What do you mean I scared you?" What did she care if he was insurmountable pain? They were enemies. He was just her prisoner to be transported to Cybertron for unknown terrors.

The pink femme shrugged and folded up into her alt form. "Just because on opposite sides doesn't mean I want to see you hurt. I was afraid you'd hurt yourself really bad."

"Well that's the first time I've ever heard that," He sighed. Even his own teammates enjoyed watching him writhe in pain. Locking his knees, he shuttered his optics and prepared for recharge. Hopefully he wouldn't dream of the same memory loop.

"I guess that's the _real_ shame," She echoed. How dejected one must feel if they couldn't recall a single time of another bot wishing them well. "Sweet dreams, Starscream," She wished him, letting herself fall into recharge.

In shocked silence, Starscream unshuttered his optics and stared at the motorcycle that laid just outside his cell. He had been a sparkling the last time he could remember somebot saying that to him, and for it to come from his captor of all bots... Shifting uncomfortably in the small cell, he mumbled," Uh, yeah... You too..."


End file.
